Treasure Christ - Philippians 3:1-7

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Hear now the word of the Lord.

Final Point

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision. Worship God in the spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gained in me, these I have counted loss for Christ." Yet, indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Well, there's a preacher in the 1900s. His name was Clarence McCartney. And it's amazing what happens. Very few preachers are remembered after they're dead. But McCartney, during his time, was a pretty famous preacher out in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

And he was a Princeton guy. And one time, he was on a steamboat. And on that steamboat, he was just sitting there in the dining room, and two men were sitting there, and they were at their table, and they were talking to each other, and he found out they were Princeton men too, and so he wanted to listen in on their conversation. And come to find out, they were talking about this prominent Christian of their day. And the first guy asks, he says, what do you think that guy's worth? Money. You know what he's talking about. What do you think that guy's worth? And the other Princeton guy answers him, he says, not much.

And McCartney noted at that time what they didn't understand is that Christian man who is prominent during his day might not have been worth much, but he had the greatest treasure in this entire universe. And your call today is to cling on to and to treasure Jesus Christ. cling on to and treasure Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about how it could be that the richest people in this world are also the most miserable people in this world?

First Point

That's not to be us, because we're to have the chief treasure. And we're to cling on to that chief treasure. And so, the first way we do that is we boast in Jesus. That's your first point. Boast in Jesus. Look with me at verse 3. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." This idea of rejoice in Christ Jesus would better be translated, boast in Christ Jesus. Boast in Him. Take confidence in Him. He's the one we look to.

Last week we spent all week, all hour, looking at who these Judaizers were, the dogs, the evil workers, the mutilators, those people who are putting confidence in what they can do, in what righteousness they might have. But we have something better than that. This is what we spent all our time on last week, was on how we boast and have confidence in Jesus. Christians don't put confidence in the flesh, but you put your confidence in Christ, don't you?

That's what a Christian does. See, Christians are like the kid who's on the playground, and when people are comparing how much money they have, and, oh, I've saved up a dollar. Oh, I got a buck fifty. Oh, I have this. Oh, I have that. And you know that one kid on the playground who would always say, well, my dad's got more money than all your dads. We're that kid. We're that kid who goes, oh yeah, my father has all the riches and the treasures in heaven. And that's my inheritance. You treasure that inheritance, Christian. We're like those kids. We don't boast in the little pocket change that we might have.

We boast in the riches of Jesus Christ. boasts in Jesus Christ. Christians long for Jesus. Christians want Jesus. Christians, for the Christian, have you ever thought about that? The word Christian, the title we give ourselves? We take the name of Christ on us. Why?

Because we want Christ. We want Jesus. That's who we want to be filled by. That's who we want to have communion with. That's who we want to be connected to. That's who we want to spend all eternity with is Jesus Christ. He's our boast. He's our confidence. He's our all. He's got to be everything to you. Boast in Christ. But we have to deal with two things that Paul has here for us that we're not to have our confidence in. And the first is, don't rely on your heritage. Don't rely on your heritage. Look with me at verses 4 and 5.

Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I more so. And here Paul lists four things that he has confidence in the flesh, that he inherited by his heritage. circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews." Paul is saying, I got all the pedigree. I mean, if you want to put confidence in the flesh, if you want to say that people are saved by being a Jew, Look at me.

I was circumcised on the eighth day. That's exactly what Leviticus said. When it was the eighth day, my mom took me and I was circumcised. I wasn't circumcised like Ishmael. In the thirteenth year, I was circumcised on the eighth day. Complete dot following the law. But not just that I was circumcised, which is what the Judaizers were telling the people they needed to do to be Christians. He says, not just that I was circumcised the eighth day, I was of the stock of Israel.

It wasn't like that Paul was somehow a proselyte. It wasn't that he was somehow a Greek person and then came into the church. No, his mom and his dad were Hebrews. They were Israelites. And he was through and through 100%. I mean, he was an Israelite. But not just was he an Israelite, he could go even further than that and say, you want to know my rich heritage? Let's go down the family tree. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. You know, Jacob's favorite tribe? You know, the only tribe that stayed with David? The only tribe that stayed with the southern kingdom of Judah?

Yeah, that's the tribe I'm from, is what Paul is saying. If you're going to have confidence in the flesh, yeah, Paul's saying, I got confidence. I'm from that tribe that had, did you know that the temple, we often think of the temple in Judah, but the land didn't belong to the tribe of Judah. the land belonged to the tribe of Benjamin." I'm from that tribe, is what Paul is saying. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. More than just that, I am a Hebrew of Hebrews.

We know that Paul was raised up in Tarsus, but he was not some Greek. Paul knew Greek, yes. Paul knew Greek better than any of us will ever know Greek, but Paul was not Greek. Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Paul spoke Hebrew. Paul spoke Aramaic. When Paul was a kid, his parents shipped him off from Tarsus to Jerusalem to learn in Jerusalem from Gamaliel. He knew what it was like to be a Hebrew.

That was him. He's saying, if anyone's got confidence in the flesh, I do. I do. But he's saying, I don't put confidence in the flesh. It's not about my stock. It's not about my lineage. It's not about what family I'm from. And that might be a sensitive thing to say when you say, don't put, don't rely in your heritage because this is a rich church. You all know me.

I love RP history. Boy, have I loved reading the history of this congregation, the pastors who have left from this congregation. I love when people ask me, Reform Presbyterian? What is that? And I get to tell them, you know the Presbyterians? We're the Presbyterians before the Presbyterians. So in Scotland in the 1500s, when the Presbyterian Church was established, yeah, that was our church. When the crown moved away from the principles of the first and second reformation, we were the church that preceded that. That's us. That's our heritage. And I love that heritage.

When reading about this congregation, I was amazed by the Makwahainies and the bears who crossed the river by wagon in the 1840s and settled here. And then within a few weeks, I mean, there were covenants, there was a society here. And by 1851, this congregation had called their first full-time pastor, who's buried right out here, Pastor McDonald. And as I was reading about him and his history, I mean, James MacDonald was described this way. He was ordained and installed in 1851, the year before this building was built. 1851. His family was originally from South Carolina. They left South Carolina because the Covenanters refused to have slaves. He moved to Sparta, Illinois. It was almost as soon as they got to Sparta, Illinois, his dad died, and he's the only son. So guess what James McDonald's doing? Taking over the family farm.

And he's doing that, and so he never goes to academy, but he studies, and he studies under his pastor, and he becomes, as one biographer called him, a fearless, eloquent, and earnest preacher. Excellent in memory, perceptive, and invincible in arguments. I mean, this man was loved by this congregation.

And some of you tie your ties back to this man. Some of you tie your ties back to the ties longer. I can't even go back in my family history before the 1930s, or sorry, before the 1830s. And some of you are way past that, but it's amazing. Some of the major families of the RP Church, McElhaney's, Baird's, Wilson's, Glasgow's, Ferris's, Reed's, Montgomery's, Hay's, McIntyre, Houston's, Henderson's, Elliott's, Hensley's, Rob's, and the list goes on and on as one of the writers of this congregation's history. You guys have a rich heritage, a wonderful heritage, but your heritage Those who are resting in the grave there, their bodies are there, but their souls are before the throne of heaven. And what would they tell you? Don't rest on us.

Treasure Jesus Christ, because that's where they are. They are before the throne of the lamb who was slain, and they're singing out, worthy is he who is to receive all honor and glory and power and might. He is worthy of your praise. This church grew then because they loved Jesus Christ.

Don't rely on your heritage. Yes, should you be proud of your heritage, you better believe it. You guys got a big, thick, strong history that you should love, but it's not what you rest eternity on. You rest eternity on Jesus Christ and His finished work. You treasure Him. You take your confidence in Him. You worship Him. But there's something else you shouldn't put your confidence in, and that's your own works. That's our third point. Don't rely on your works. Don't rely on your works.

Look with me at verse 6. We're going to go into second half of verse 5. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. Again, Paul is saying, if anyone should have confidence, I more so. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. This is like, I was a strict Jew.

I wasn't one of those Hellenized Jews. I wasn't one of those people who liked to go to the theater. I wasn't one of those people who wanted to go hang out with the Greeks. I wasn't one of those people who was one of Herod's yes-men. I wasn't somehow a Roman citizen indulging in the Roman culture.

I was a Pharisee. I was a separatist. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. That's what he was. That's the confidence that any Jew would want. He says it's not worth it. Concerning zeal, persecuted the church. This idea of persecuting, this is the word image behind the word persecution is making someone run. This is like you got a gun behind someone's back and they're feared for their lives and they're getting out of town because they're worried you're going to kill them.

Paul was the one holding the gun. Paul wasn't just the one holding the gun, Paul was the one chasing. Paul was the one who got paperwork from the Sanhedrin to be able to go, not just in Jerusalem, not just in Judah, not just in Samaria, but all the way up in Syria, in Damascus, to try to go stamp out the church up there. He was zealous. He was gonna take his money, he was gonna take his time, and he was gonna go kill the church. That's what his job was. Concerning zeal, a persecutor of the church.

Concerning righteousness, which is in the law, blameless." Now, we're going to talk and talk, explain more about the theology of what that means, because Paul knows that he's not perfect. Paul, go read Romans 7, and it's blatantly clear that Paul knew what it was like to sin. So what he's not saying is that when I was a Pharisee, I never sinned. What he was saying is that I kept myself from all impurity. I kept myself pure from all those sinful people out there. Concerning righteousness, which is in the law, or in his understanding of the law as a Pharisee, blameless.

Paul was top of his game. Paul was a religious, if he was in a corporation, he would be the religious employee of the month. If he was in that religious corporation of Judaism, he would be chief legal officer. Paul was that man. It was, he was the cream of the crop. He had studied under Gamaliel. I mean, he was the Pharisee of Pharisees. If anyone in the Jewish nation wanted to put confidence in the flesh, Paul goes, Trump card, I got your beat. My heritage is perfect. My works are perfect. I am the Jew of the Jews.

What does he say? He counts it as loss. It's gone. He doesn't care about it. Because that's not what he wants. That's not what his treasure is. And his treasure is not in his heritage. His treasure is not in his works. It's not in him being a Pharisee. It's not in his zeal. His confidence isn't somehow in his persecuting the church or in his former righteousness. But it's in Jesus Christ, not his works. not his works. What are the works that you might be resting in? What are the works of righteousness that you might be trusting in that you might have mistakenly or sadly purposely put in front of your love for Jesus Christ?

It's easy to do this in our Christian lives. It's easy to forget that Jesus Christ is our joy, Jesus Christ is our treasure, Jesus Christ is our boast. And instead, we start becoming prideful in our prayer life, in our visiting the widows, in our showing mercy, in our Bible reading, in just not being like the people around us. And we just become separatist. We forget that the joy, the boast of the Christian life is the perfect one, Jesus Christ himself. Don't put your faith, don't rely on your works. Hold on to your treasure, Jesus Christ.

This past Saturday, one of the men at men's morning breakfast said something amazing about a former member here. I never got to meet this lady, but Mary Alice, they were telling me, when she was waiting for death, it wasn't that she was afraid of death, but she was excited to meet her Savior. Are you excited to meet Christ? Are you treasuring Him?

That's our last point. Treasure Jesus above everything else. Treasure Jesus above everything else. Look with me at verse 7. But what things were gained to me These I have counted loss for Christ. This idea that whatever things were gained to me, and these things I have counted as loss for Christ, this is financial language. Paul is saying, I was heaping into my savings account, I was storing up my good works, I was throwing them into my righteousness 401k, and I would gladly give everything up. All of my works, all of my heritage, everything I had ever put faith in and trust in and hope in and treasured, Just burn it up. I don't care about it if I could have Jesus. I count it as loss. Financial ruin, I don't care.

Give me Jesus Christ, is what Paul is saying. Is that the prayer of your own heart? Are you treasuring Jesus Christ, that nothing else matters beside Him? Jesus is our rich benefactor. This is why we spent a whole week on Philippians 2, verses 6-11 on who Jesus was. Jesus is God and He loves you. Jesus was perfect from eternity past and humbled Himself to the likeness of man that He might love. Jesus, the author of the law, that perfect one, who knew no sin became sin, that you might have eternal life. Jesus Christ paid the price of your redemption. Jesus Christ did it all.

Don't trust in heritage. Don't trust in your works. Don't trust in anything else. It's like putting your trust in monopoly money. It's worthless. But Jesus Christ is worth everything. Treasure him, cling to him, love him. Have your eyes filled with the beauty of his glory. When you start getting distracted, pray that God would incline your heart, would turn you back to him. Have your eyes filled with his glory, his worth, and know his love, his eternal love for you.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. God, we thank you for Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would incline our hearts and turn our spirits to treasure you. God, we pray that we would be those who worship you. Thank you for your rich gift. God, please let us. Let us know the most important person in the universe. Let us worship him. In Jesus name. Amen.

Please turn in your Psalters now as we sing in response Psalm 128, Selection D. Psalm 128, Selection D. Please stand as you are able. 118, Selection D. Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.